McCain calls brain cancer prognosis ‘very poor’

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Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., talks with reporters in the basement of the Capitol before the Senate Policy luncheons on September 19, 2017.

U.S. Sen. John McCain says doctors have given him a “very, very serious prognosis” as he battles brain cancer.

“Some say 3 percent, some say 14 percent,” McCain said, of his chances for survival, during an interview on CBS’ “60 Minutes” on Sunday.

McCain underwent surgery in July for a brain tumor that was later found to be a form of glioblastoma, the same type of cancer that took the life of his former Senate colleague Edward M. Kennedy in 2009. McCain told CBS that he thinks about Kennedy a lot. He says Kennedy continued to work despite the diagnosis and “never gave up because he loved the engagement.”

Kennedy, McCain said on CBS, “stayed at his job, kept working, kept going, even when he was in a wheelchair.”

The senator, who’s been called a maverick for his refusal to vote for the Republican’s health care bills, is trying to do the same.

“I am more energetic and more engaged as a result of this because I know that I need to do everything I can to serve this country while I can,” McCain, who starts his days with chemotherapy and radiation, told CBS.

McCain says he has “feelings sometimes of fear of what happens,” but counters that with gratitude for having lived “a great life.”

He adds: “it’s not that you’re leaving, it’s that you — that you stayed.”

–CNBC.com’s Annie Nova contributed to this report.